Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Road Safety) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to amend general business notice of motion No. 231 by omitting subparagraph (b)(ii).

Leave granted.

I, and on behalf of Senator Gallacher, move the motion as amended:

That the Senate—

(a) notes:

  (i) the Government's failure to provide a response to the reports of the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee (the Committee) on aspects of road safety in Australia,

  (ii) that, in 2018, both the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Legislation and References Committees sent two letters to the Minister, drawing attention to the Committee's reports into aspects of road safety in Australia,

  (iii) that the Committee received correspondence in reply from the Minister, advising that the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Cities and Regional Development was 'consulting with other portfolios to finalise the Australian Government response to the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee inquiry into aspects of road safety in Australia',

  (iv) that it has now been a further nine months since the Minister's advice to the Committee that a government response to its road safety reports was being finalised, and a government response has still not been presented to the Senate, and

  (v) significant concern about this lack of response, given the importance of improving road safety in Australia and preventing unnecessary deaths on our roads;

(b) calls on the Federal Government to respond to the Committee's recommendations in reports presented in 2016 and 2017, so that the recently established Joint Select Committee on Road Safety can properly consider the best ways to reduce road accident rates and deaths on Australian roads; and

(c) requires the Minister representing the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development to table, by no later than 3.30 pm on 14 November 2019, the government's response to the Committee's reports.

Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Forestry and Fisheries) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to make a short statement

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is granted for one minute

Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Forestry and Fisheries) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is expected that the government will be in a position to provide a response to the inquiry before the end of the year. The seriousness of road safety is not lost on the government. In the 2019-20 budget alone, $2.2 billion was committed to the Local and State Government Road Safety Package. A specific joint select committee on road safety has also been created to provide an interim report by March 2020.

Question agreed to.